MIA posted a link for me the other day to nopuppymillscanada.ca and their site featured a prominent disclaimer at the top of the page that states:

We at No Puppy Mills Canada DO NOT endorse, agree with, or support any ads appearing on these pages that advertise the selling of dogs/puppies. Those banners are generated by Google in exchange for a free service they provide.

I've always thought it was a bit contrary to "the pulse of the forum," as marko phrases it in the "read before posting" sticky, that there are ads for animal sales from god only knows what sources. If these ads must be there, could you put up a notice like the one above to let newcomers know that they are not endorsed by the site?

Sounds good...I'll admit I only followed two of the links though; one was a labradoodle breeder and the other was for some accessory like you mentioned. But I think that whether they are actually links that will help one to buy a pet or not, it still sends the message that this way of procuring a pet is supported by the site.
Less is better. Thanks.

I also do not like these ads. When we started we had them up on our site as they usually pay a few cents per ad to the website. Our webmaster put them up and once we realized what they were we had him take them off immediately. I have followed some of the links and a lot are for e-bay but there are ads to buy puppies, etc. I agree a disclaimer should be put up on this. I had a discussion about this with one of the moderators. I think also if you pop-ups blocked you dont see them, as in the case of the modertor I was emailing with.

I wondered about those ads too since some of them seemed to convey the absolute opposite of what this site's mission is. (I am assuming here - have to admit I have not read the mission or maybe I have just been to one to many strategic planning mtgs, lol). One I clicked on brought me to a byb!!

Does vBulletin require them or is is part of the format of these? I am assuming yes tho you know what it is to assume. <g> I guess the alternative is to create your own bulletin board from scratch and that is rather like reinventing the wheel these days. You could always do what many enterprising script kids do - "borrow" and amend the source code of the bulletin program - it's just a basic (no pun intended to the language) php app with pretty elementary sql. And you can actually accomplish the same thing with a variety of languages.

On another issue, have you given any consideration to becoming Bobby certified? This has been something I have been pushing for in many of the sites I have been involved with - and since they are govt or hospitals, they really should NOT be breaking Canadian and US legislation (in Canada, only Ontario has specfic prov legislation tho) re providing access to people with disabilities. We actually have discovered some (shock!!) disability rights groups breaking the same laws. But, I am hoping more and more responsible web site developers will provide alternate ways for people to communicate. Obviously, forms are a no no and give you a negative Bobby rating (I cite Bobby but there are a few other good assessment software packages out there as well). It is challenging to offer a bulletin board alternative and the folks at vBulletin have not considered it tho they are not alone. The ideal is a Board that offers a way for people to post using their keyboard instead of using a mouse to click or having audio if there is no braille - those kind of things.